Lost
by burningdarkfire
Summary: Syaoran has grown from his first memories of a darkened alleyway covered in filth.  A princess, an orphan, a ninja, a mage, a creation.  To bring them together, a journey. KuroFai, SyaoSak.  Two parts.


**A/N **- I bring to you a new fanfic, spawned from the inspiration that hit me on the head when I saw the prompts and theme for 31_days on LJ. I know the text may be a bit heavy on the eyes, but I didn't want to break them up into smaller bits because it would ruin the unity of each theme (if that makes sense). It might be a bit confusing, so I'm just going to explain that they're basically a bunch of small drabbles, between 100 and 200 words, from different POVs during the journey. They are more or less in chronological order, although there are little time skips (mostly because the first worlds really weren't that important -sweatdrop-). Part I contains mostly SyaoSak, not much KuroFai. Anyway, I'll stop rambling and let you read.

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**Lost**

**31_days: August Themes**

**PART I**

_1) healed by wind and sun  
_Syaoran has grown from his first memories of a darkened alleyway covered in filth. Small scars still remain on his body, but they no longer make him wince as he walks around his home doing everyday chores. Pain still lingers in his eyes sometimes, usually after Sakura looks at him and his heart aches with all that can never be but that he is just selfish enough to wish for. Time has passed, and Syaoran has been healed by the wind and sun of Clow's desert and by the warmth of his princess's smiles, and that will have to do.

_2) over the world and under the world  
_Sakura closes her eyes and a gentle night wind brushes up against her as she listens to the distant melody of the ruins. The air seems to stir around her and lift her up, closer and closer to the ruins until she is flying along, floating above the world full with twinkling lights below and above her. She is set down lightly inside the very structure that called to her, and as she places her hands on an ancient symbol that is indecipherable, the hidden room under the world begins to shake and she is swept away, lost in oblivion.

_3) walk in empty places  
_Sakura opens her eyes to darkness. She pushes herself up and rubs her eyes, then looks around for light and finds none. She wonders where Syaoran is and how she had gotten here, to this cold empty place, devoid of all warmth. She gets up and starts stumbling forward, feeling her way along the walls that ran parallel to each other on either side of her. Suddenly, a flash blinds her for a moment and once it clears, she rushes forward to a now faintly glowing door with a feather carved into it. Putting an ear to the warm wood, she can hear happy voices engaging in pleasant conversation. Hesitating only slightly, she twists the doorknob and opens the door, only to find herself falling into her own memory that had only just been recovered.

_4) one day here and the next day gone  
_Tomoyo smiles to herself while she remembers what happened yesterday, although the smile soon changes to a sad one as she recalls what will happen to the dear ninja that she sent away. His incredulous look after she told him that he must go lingers in her mind and she giggles, glad that she could still surprise the most deadly man on Nihon. Then once again, her demeanor becomes heavier as she glances around the room, noting in her mind where Kurogane should be but isn't, where he was yesterday, only one day ago, and where he will likely never walk again.

_5) destiny calls and I go  
_Fai hums a quiet lullaby as he sheds his clothes, preparing for one final journey to see Ashura, asleep at the bottom of the pool. Diving into the water, he allows the cool silence to calm him as he gazes down at his king that he would have followed faithfully into death – if only he hadn't been asked to kill him! Letting a small, meaningless smile linger on his face, he emerges from the pool and gives Chii his final orders, as well as a simple but heartfelt goodbye. Looking at his reflection in the pool briefly, he sees that his eyes are sad and burdened by the knowledge he bears but cannot share, all for the sake of a wish. He is a pawn of a maddened magician, who seeks to defeat the logic binding the worlds, and he will do his part as was foretold. Hitsuzen is calling him forward to meet his fate, and in a final flurry of purple magic, Fai goes.

_6) that we should voyage far  
_Mokona really doesn't know much about these people, since she has only just woken up, but she knows that she was made just for this journey and to accompany these specific people, and she can't wait for them to be on their way. Although looking at the faces of her companions, she can see the sorrow and the weight that each one bears, she knows that they all have a kind heart and that they'll have a good time between the struggles to survive. Mokona knows that as they travel, she will watch these people change – perhaps the blond might come to smile a bit more truthfully, or the scary one might learn to simply smile without looking like he was going to eat her. Maybe when the princess wakes up, she'll remember her love and the two youngest members of the group can look at each other with an equal amount of happiness. Mokona knows that it has already been dreamed that they will voyage far and through dark places, but Mokona has hope for the future.

_7) no longer burdened by what's left behind  
_Syaoran is determined that he will see this journey to the very end, until the princess who is clutched in his arms like a cold corpse rises once more in joy and in laughter. He plans to fight with all of his strength through blood, sweat, and tears until his beloved can smile happily once more. Secretly though, in a place in his heart he wishes not to acknowledge, a small voice whispers to him that he should wish the princess will never wake up, because when she does, she will look at him with the indifferent eyes of a stranger. However, the little voice is no match for all the love in Syaoran's heart and so he will keep on going, for a girl that doesn't even remember his name, until they are no longer burdened by the memories left behind.

_8) escape all that waiting and staying  
_Kurogane has never liked staying still for too long; the inactivity is dull and causes time to drag by slowly. He is trained, and trained well, to stay on guard and alert at all times, sometimes frozen in the same position for long minutes in case he gives his position, but during those times the thrill of danger sings through his veins and keeps him from fidgeting. Kurogane has always been one for doing something, for acting upon his thoughts and his plans, and so he was somewhat glad to be thrown into a battle in the first world they come to – but instead, the kid was the one being challenged. Now, however, there are enemies focused on him, and as his kudan shapes itself into a sword and he leaps forward to face his adversaries, Kurogane is glad to have escaped all the boredom of waiting and staying.

_9) the open road, the bitter song, the heavy load  
_Fai is the tiniest bit surprised at how easy it is to pretend to be carefree; he needs only to throw on a smile and say a few kind words and it is evident that Syaoran and Mokona can't see the heavy load that weighs down on his shoulders and turns his smiles into frowns when he is alone. Kurogane, who has so far spent little effort in being polite, is the only one that still glares at him in suspicion. Fai wonders if it's in his nature to do so, whether it came from his position in his home country or if this strange, dark-haired man that he had been ordered to kill possessed the ability to see past his masks to the bitter song that his soul sang, as they travelled alone together down this road that hitsuzen had opened for them.

_10) no time for spreadin' roots  
_Fai knows, as he should, that he can't afford to become too close to these people, that if he crosses the line he's drawn there will be dire consequences. Everyone that becomes someone to him is fated to suffer, cursed as he is by the fact that he is merely half of a whole and cannot change that. He is all too aware of the bloodstained ending that awaits everyone that set out on this voyage but he still clings onto his wish. It is the only thing remaining in the crumbled remains of his soul, as it was broken first by the superstitions of an icy country and then again by the insanity of an even colder country, as well as all the deaths in between. No, Fai has no right, no time or place, to be spreading roots and getting comfortable.

_11) all cities were the same _  
Syaoran worries that Sakura will trip over a stray pebble or a misbehaving root if she isn't careful as she stares around her, wide-eyed in wonder as she takes in all the new sights. It's like this for every country that they come to: they will land in a heap, with Sakura usually asleep, and when she wakes up, energy seems to pour off of her as she trots around eagerly examining everything that surrounds them with the curiosity of a child. Syaoran, however, is content to follow a step behind the princess, ready to dash forward should she need help, and watch the bounce in her stride and the light that her smile exudes. All the colorful cities and countries that they travelled to, they were all the same to him: a mere background for Sakura's brilliance.

_12) No yesterdays on the road  
_Kurogane still fails to understand why it is that the mage will occasionally disappear, only to grin cheerfully and wave it away when he is found by Kurogane sulking in some dark corner. The ninja has long ago put his own horrific past behind him – he hasn't forgotten, but he no longer lets the shadows of his story follow him every day and he can't understand why the mage can't, or won't, do the same. He can see, with each new person they greet, that the false smiles come more easily and that the mask sits more firmly on his face, to the extent that Kurogane is unsure, if this continues, whether or not even he will be able to tell a lie from a truth. He notices that as more and more people fall for his carefree persona, the mage himself is perhaps beginning to believe, as every other person believes, that his yesterday, unknown to them, was not so terrifying after all.

_13) life is short and the world is wide  
_Fai watches his two youngest companions and once more gets the feeling, the urge, that compels him forward to laugh with them and smile with them, because he knows, even when he tries to forget, that their fabricated lives are short and destined for a tragic ending in one of the wide worlds that they have yet to arrive on. Sometimes, when he gets swept away by the feeling of happiness and belonging, it takes a pair of red eyes that bore into him as he's pretending to be drunk and pretending to be a cat to shake him back into reality. It takes a pair of those eyes to remind him of a truth that he's also pretending he knows nothing of, although what he knows is only too much.

_14) two ways of getting home  
_Fai is envious of Kurogane and the fact that his greatest wish is to return home, to his princess and to his country. He had already lost two homes, one that had left him with memories of broken bodies and fingers bloodied from trying to climb, another that had blessed him with memories of a flickering fireplace and a kind, guiding hand – but the hand had been stained red and the fire had been doused in favor of a chilling air that stirred now only with the wind. If he had a choice, he wouldn't go back to either of the homes he had once kept. More than once, Fai has caught himself thinking that home, whichever way he might get there, through sorrow or through happiness, is where his fellow travelers are.

_15) trusting strangers  
_Kurogane whirls around as he fights the oni, feeling satisfaction in the way the flash of silver belonging to his sword parts cleanly through the black. He dares not attempt one of his signatures techniques, not with this sword. He's a bit frustrated that he is unable to cut them all down where they stand, but as he moves around steadily, he remarks to himself how calm and efficient the mage is in dodging the blows aimed at him, even when he has no useful weapons to defend himself with. Kurogane thinks that he could do without the task of also having to protect the blond, but at the same time he knows that the other man will warn him if something sneaks up on him. However, when a warning is shouted, though not by the mage, and a warning comes too late, when Kurogane finds himself amidst rubble with a broken sword and physically hurt mage, he wonders when it is that he began to trust these strangers.

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**A/N** - I thought that this was absolutely perfect for a Tsubasa fanfic, so here's Part I! Tell me what you think in a review, please, and whether or not this style was a good idea o.O Part II will most likely be up on Sept 1.


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